Month old with a new chick

[johnlockealderson]

Greetings BYC,

New BYCer here. I started a month ago with a Rhode Island White and a Chantacler. I just lost the RIW and I wanted to buy a new baby chick for the Chantacler. The seed store clerk told me it wasn't wise to introduce a baby chick with a month old, despite the fact that she's only a month old. I know it's wise to not integrate babies into an adult flock, but would a new chick really be that in that much jeopardy integrating to just one one month old?

I'll look around at other feed stores around Austin to see if I can find one that's more similar in size, but having just lost her buddy I wanted to take her home a new buddy right away.

Any thoughts, advice or experience shared is appreciated in advance.

 

[rosemarythyme]

The clerk is correct that a newly hatched chick is likely too tiny to be with a 4 week old. A chick that's maybe within a week in age of your current chick is a better fit. You might want to check things like Craigslist just to see if you can find a local breeder or someone with older chicks. My feed store does keep birds from newly arrived chicks all the way to several months old, but that's not standard at most stores due to space.